Four major mobile phone operators in Vietnam have been asked to stop launching new promotional campaigns until the end of this year, as their ‘promotion quota’ has been exceeded, according to the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority under the Ministry of Information and Communications. Viettel, Vinaphone, MobiFone, and Hanoi Telecom will thus be banned from offering promotions for prepaid card users, which give them 50 percent additional value when charging the cards. The special offer which provides extra money in users’ mobile phone accounts when activating a new SIM card is also subject to the ban. All promotions can be resumed as of January 1, 2013. The Vietnam Telecommunications Authority said the network operators have used up the allowable promotional period this year as of October. Under government decree No.25 and the Ministry of Information and Communications’ circular No.11, the total valid time of promotional programs for a mobile operator is not allowed to exceed 90 days per year.